According to a nineteenth century biographer, Paul Gerhardt (1606-1676) was “trained in the school of affliction.” He studied for the ministry during a calamitous period of the Thirty Years War. He was called to serve a church in Berlin, only to be expelled for refusing to sign a ruler’s edict that grieved his conscience. Add to it the death of four of his five children in infancy, as well as wife’s sudden death in 1668. He served a church in a small German town for his last seven years, which was, a contemporary wrote, “a most difficult assignment.”
Next to Martin Luther, Paul was the most popular German hymn writer of the 17th century. Of his one hundred thirty-two hymns, some such as “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” are still sung in churches today. His hymns convey a deep trust in God, despite difficult circumstances. Take one of his lesser-known hymns, “If God My Lord Be for Me,” based on the ending of Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ. The final stanza of this fifteen-verse hymn declares:
For joy my heart is ringing,
all sorrow disappears,
and full of mirth and singing,
it wipes away all tears.
The sun that cheers my spirit
is Jesus Christ, my king,
The heav’n I shall inherit
makes me rejoice and sing.
On his seventieth birthday, Paul wrote “a testimony” to his son. It turned out to be his last testament, as he died later that same year. Paul closed his letter with the words, “In summary: Pray diligently, study something honorable, live peacefully, serve honestly, and remain unmoved in your faith and confessing. If you do this, you will one day die and depart from this world, willingly, joyfully, and blessedly. Amen.”
Paul Gerhardt leads us in an evening prayer: